Latino Evangelical leaders are calling on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to place a statewide pause on all scheduled death-row executions. In a letter they delivered on Tuesday, clergy and faith leaders cited Florida’s disproportionate use of the death penalty. According to the letter, this year alone, Florida has executed sixteen people, “a pace that puts the state ahead of every other state in the country combined.”
The effort is being mobilized by Mission Talk, an organization devoted to equipping Latino faith communities to put their faith into action through public policy. Mission Talk currently includes over 2,000 evangelical and pentecostal bishops and pastors across Florida.
According to Omar Johnson, pastor of Freedom House Orlando and a Mission Talk representative, the network’s “biblical values include the sanctity of human life.” Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson cited this value as the reason they are reaching out to DeSantis.
“Florida is experiencing an extraordinary and deeply concerning pace of executions,” Omar said. “In 2025, Florida executed 19 people, more than double its previous modern-era record of eight executions.”
Johnson acknowledged that people of faith understand “justice matters” and “the devastating impact of violent crime and the pain that victims and their families endure.” He added that the group doesn’t want to dismiss that pain or believe that accountability should be ignored.
“We believe in accountability,” Johnson said. “But we also believe in mercy.”
The letter asks DeSantis to consider that those currently being executed include military veterans, elderly and infirm prisoners, and those who suffer from mental and emotional distress.
“None of those realities erase the responsibility for wrongdoing,” the letter states. “But a state that executes its own veterans and its most mentally and physically broken citizens has lost sight of what justice requires. Mercy remains a Christian obligation even in the face of grave harm.”
The Latino evangelical leaders admit they are not addressing every aspect of capital punishment. They are simply asking for a pause to allow Florida to “reckon honestly with what is being done, to sit with the doubt it cannot fully put to rest, to weigh the true cost borne by surviving families, to take account of the full life of each person on death row, and to leave room for the mercy and restoration that God has not yet finished offering.”
Tuesday’s press conference can be viewed here.
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